Tuesday, August 30, 2011

9/11 conspiracy theories

"I have a rule of thumb when it comes to conspiracy theories. If the theory involves aliens or government competence - such as keeping a secret for years - I don't believe the story"
--Scott Adams (not talking about 9/11)

The Globe and Mail has a page on their website where readers can comment about how the 9/11 attacks changed their world. Reading through several of the responses, I'm surprised how many people believe the various conspiracy theories about those attacks. In case you're wondering what the conspiracy theories are, or what the counter-arguments to the conspiracy theories are, check out this BBC news article. I don't know nearly enough about this stuff to debate it, but I'm inclined to believe the official reports. I find it easy enough to believe that government incompetence and communication problems made the disaster worse than it could have been otherwise, and that the government produced faulty intelligence reports in order to justify invading Iraq, but I find it hard to believe that the government orchestrated the attacks.